Meath GAA discussion thread

Obrieski

Meath (Allianz FL v Louth): Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Mickey Burke; James McEntee, Donal Keogan, Shane McEntee; Bryan Menton, Adam Flanagan; Eamon Wallace, Ben Brennan, Graham Reilly; Cillian O'Sullivan, Thomas O'Reilly, Donal Lenihan.

Don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is the biggest game for Meath in a while. Lose here and relegation is all but certain.
Louth will be hopping off walls to beat us and we simply cannot afford division 3 next year for a young, inexperienced team.
Division 3 is also a brute of a division, one I would not be overly confident of doing well in at all.
Come on lads, we need this one.

CrabRevolution

What's the story with Clare? Over the last 2 years they've managed to draw with Derry, Cavan, and Tipperary, and have beaten Kildare, Down (twice) and Cork (twice). Yet the 2 times we've played them we've defeated them heavily.

Have we some sort of curse over them? Or does it really motivate our players to be playing against Clare?

windy shepard henderson

CrabRevolution wrote: »

What's the story with Clare? Over the last 2 years they've managed to draw with Derry, Cavan, and Tipperary, and have beaten Kildare, Down (twice) and Cork (twice). Yet the 2 times we've played them we've defeated them heavily.

Have we some sort of curse over them? Or does it really motivate our players to be playing against Clare?

ye are massive in size compared to us , we cant seem to break a tackle against ye , ye are a top team that lacks belief thats all thats wrong with meath plus ye are the only team in the division that beat us in mid field ,something even kerry have struggled against us

i cant put my finger on what has gone wrong since , i was tipping ye for promotion this year

i hope ye are not aspiring to be playing against the likes of us :pac: , bring back eamon o'brien , the last man to really cut the mustered in meath football , players must not be playing for the management at the moment

Rock Lesnar

Im gonna guess the game will be off today if the snow here is anything to judge by,

dobman88

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Im gonna guess the game will be off today if the snow here is anything to judge by,

Yeah off today, provisionally refixed for tomorrow

Obrieski

dobman88 wrote: »

Yeah off today, provisionally refixed for tomorrow

Game today also called off.

Some fun for the fixture makers now!

rpurfield

Fixture calendar is in tatters now, I'd say those doing them in Meath are glad we won't be in the league final! I wouldn't go too hard on the GAA over it though, they can't control the weather just yet!! I just hope they take learnings from this and have a proper contingency in place for next year. A starting point would be if the two counties are close enough the venue is switched if possible, or moved to a neutral venue nearby.

Hammer Archer

Surprised that the "final" round of games are going ahead Sunday. Would have thought that the postponed games had to be played first so that all final games could be played at the same time.

Simple permutation for Sunday, lose and we're down. We have to beat both Down and Louth to be sure of staying up. Think we could be looking at a dead rubber final game against Louth.

mickrourke

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Surprised that the "final" round of games are going ahead Sunday. Would have thought that the postponed games had to be played first so that all final games could be played at the same time.

Simple permutation for Sunday, lose and we're down. We have to beat both Down and Louth to be sure of staying up. Think we could be looking at a dead rubber final game against Louth.

I'm hoping for a win but we haven't done well against Down the last few times either.
The silence on this forum (and others) regarding a make or break match speaks volumes regarding how apathetic Meath supporters have got over the last few years unfortunately.

CrabRevolution

In fairness what is there to say? Before the Tipp and Cork games there was all the talk of "vital game next, need a win to lift the team etc." but it all fell apart.

I've a better feeling against Down than I did against Cavan, Tipp or Cork. Those 3 are simply better teams than us at the moment, but Down just aren't.

That's not to say we should be expecting a win vs. Down or that they can't beat us. Just that they're far more beatable than the 3 teams we've lost to.
PP have us at 5/6 which is pretty spot on in my opinion.

Rock Lesnar

Well I think we'll win today but i taught that in newry last year to, i just hope we start positively and attack but i cant see it

Hammer Archer

First game since the little one arrived. Easy enough win in the end but most of that was due to the two quick goals at the start. Could have been different had Colgan not made that save in the first minute.
Thought O'Sullivan was MOTM with Lenehan and McKeever doing well with what little possession they had. McGill was best of the backs. Struggling to see what Ben Brennan brings to the team. Tobin and Joey Wallace did much more in the short time they were on. Midfield still seems abysmal. There doesn't seem to be any plan for winning breaking ball. It's just hope for the best.

GAA are devastated that the remaining games have to be played. Unfortunately, Tipp were beaten by Cavan meaning they have nothing to play for against Down. So we have to make sure of the game against Louth.

Rock Lesnar

Hammer Archer wrote: »

First game since the little one arrived. Easy enough win in the end but most of that was due to the two quick goals at the start. Could have been different had Colgan not made that save in the first minute.
Thought O'Sullivan was MOTM with Lenehan and McKeever doing well with what little possession they had. McGill was best of the backs. Struggling to see what Ben Brennan brings to the team. Tobin and Joey Wallace did much more in the short time they were on. Midfield still seems abysmal. There doesn't seem to be any plan for winning breaking ball. It's just hope for the best.

GAA are devastated that the remaining games have to be played. Unfortunately, Tipp were beaten by Cavan meaning they have nothing to play for against Down. So we have to make sure of the game against Louth.

Yeah the 2 goal lead helped us greatly, nothing much between them apart from the goals, totally agree about the breaking ball from kick outs, i counted 7 in a row during the 2nd half where we failed to gain possession from, thats not good enough.

Rock Lesnar

Louth game at 3pm on saturday

Al_Coholic

Rock Lesnar wrote:

Louth game at 3pm on saturday

The 2017 Tailteann cup is fixed for the same time in Navan
Meath Hill played the semi final for that competition on Saint Patrick's day last year

Rock Lesnar

Al_Coholic wrote: »

The 2017 Tailteann cup is fixed for the same time in Navan
Meath Hill played the semi final for that competition on Saint Patrick's day last year

Yeah think i'd prefer to go and watch that to be honest, it will be very competitive to say the least

Al_Coholic

Worst first half of football I've seen but a good improvement in the 2nd half

The ground itself is a disgrace with 4 portable toilets at the stand side with the main toilets at the far side.

Obrieski

PHEW!

Relief is the overriding emotion, relegation would have been disastrous.
Positive end to the campaign with 2 wins, yesterday was never going to be a game for the purists with the tension and with Louth not wanting to lose to Meath, or 7 on the bounce.
First half was a horror show but our superior skill and fitness won out.

Lot of work to do between now and Longford. Club championships this week will provide a good distraction for the players to go back and get some game time, build some confidence and maybe we might unearth a couple more guys around the county.

Rock Lesnar

That 1st half was atrocious, 2nd half was better but im not sure whether that was down to us playing better or louth missing so many players and are just so so bad, goal was achieved and they survived, but i think this was our best chance of getting out of div.2, and we missed out, we have to improve massively for the championship but if we dont, and these level of performances stays the same, i think longford will beat us.

Rock Lesnar

Obrieski wrote: »

maybe we might unearth a couple more guys around the county.

I cant see that happening.

NufcNavan

Al_Coholic wrote: »

Worst first half of football I've seen but a good improvement in the 2nd half

The ground itself is a disgrace with 4 portable toilets at the stand side with the main toilets at the far side.

It is well known that the ground is a disgrace. After we played in the O'Byrne Cup there a few years ago I refused to ever go back.

Lanig123

Club championships going to get cancelled with this weather?

sc86

going to be some mess now with alot of games likely to be off

rpurfield

I know a lot of pitches are closed around the county, a good dry day today might help them now, but the weather this time of year is madness. How many rounds are scheduled for this month?

Hammer Archer

I'd recommend looking up last night's Scannal program on RTE player. It covered the Meath - Mayo game in 1996 and the fallout from the fight.
Always enjoy watching those games. Brendan Reilly's winning point never gets the credit it deserves.

Al_Coholic

Who are they players that the Chronicle has said have left the panel?

CrabRevolution

Anyone given much thought to how we'll get on in the Joe McDonagh cup in hurling? We were to be relegated last year and we couldn't have complained if we were put in the CR this year, but Meath appealed and the GAA hadn't really a leg to stand on after they magicked up a promotion spot for Antrim.

Like last year I think we're probably favourites for the drop, what's worse is there's 2 relegation spots. Bottom team goes straight down and 2nd bottom goes into a playoff. I just don't see us getting the 2/3 wins needed to stay up.

On the plus side we couldn't have asked for a nicer set of home/away games. 3 games at home, and our 2 away games are the closest 2 possible.

Hammer Archer

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Anyone given much thought to how we'll get on in the Joe McDonagh cup in hurling? We were to be relegated last year and we couldn't have complained if we were put in the CR this year, but Meath appealed and the GAA hadn't really a leg to stand on after they magicked up a promotion spot for Antrim.

Like last year I think we're probably favourites for the drop, what's worse is there's 2 relegation spots. Bottom team goes straight down and 2nd bottom goes into a playoff. I just don't see us getting the 2/3 wins needed to stay up.

On the plus side we couldn't have asked for a nicer set of home/away games. 3 games at home, and our 2 away games are the closest 2 possible.

Have we regressed this year? I haven't been to any games apart from the Antrim game in the Walsh Cup but I've read that we have looked far more cautious in attack compared to last season. The hockeying at the hands of Kerry in the league was a worry given that we beat them last year.
I think we can possibly scrape a win to avoid automatic relegation. Possibly against Antrim or maybe Westmeath. Doubt if we'll have enough to get anywhere close to the other three teams.

sc86

you forget lads we played in 2b league last year so the games in 2a are not something you can compare with at all

playing donegal etc last year ment league was nearly useless compared to speed when playing championship again the better teams

CrabRevolution

I know we went up a division, but I didn't really see much to suggest we'd improved much this year. We haven't gotten worse, but haven't made a step up in performances either.

Beating Kildare and London are improvements on where we were say 5 years ago, but it's the least you'd expect now.

In our 3 real tests vs Westmeath Kerry and Carlow though we lost all 3. You might argue we ran Westmeath close but we ran them close last year too and at the end of the day still lost, finishing last in the SHC group.